Something's Different
by ThisIsMyIdeaOfFun
Summary: After the arcade is closed for the night Ralph goes to see Vanellope, like usual. But today Ralph notices that something isn't quite right with the President of Sugar Rush...
1. Chapter 1

"ALL CLEAR!" was shouted throughout the arcade as Litwak's Arcade closed for the night. Ralph gets up out of the mud wiping the mud off of himself as he stands. Felix quickly runs over to him upon leaving the building.

"Hey Ralph," he says, "How about coming to Tapper's with me and Tamora?"

"Sure, is it ok if Vanellope comes with us?"

Felix smiles, like he knew he would say that, and says "Of course she can."

"Great! I'll go get her." And with that Ralph heads off to Central Station.

Just like always he stopped for a "random security check" and just like always Ralph is the only one who's stopped. Central Station is as crowded as usual and a lot of the characters are still afraid of him despite what happened in Sugar Rush. All in all it's just another day in the arcade.

Though something's _different _about today.

He doesn't know what's so different until he finally arrives at Sugar Rush. At first everything seems the same as it always is. Everything's still made of candy, the citizens are still sweet as can be and Sour Bill is still…well, Sour Bill. Oddly enough it's Vanellope who's different. She still greets him with a hug and the usual "What took ya so long Stinkbrain?" She's distracted. She's got this troubled look on her face and she can't keep up with the conversation they've been trying to have as they walk through her candy kingdom.

Finally Ralph caves and asks, "Is there something wrong kid?"

Vanellope looks up at him like she's debating about whether or not to tell him. Just as she opens her mouth to say something one of the racers speeds by them. The cake race kart stops not too far ahead of them where it looks like a small group of a few of the other racers are meeting. A racer with green pigtails and a candle burning a top her head jumps out it and turns their direction. '_Candlehead' _Ralph remembers her name. She waves at them with a big grin on her face. Ralph waves back and looks down at Vanellope whose face is pink as she waves at the other girl.

_Oh._ Now Ralph gets it.

"You _like _her."

Vanellope's head snaps up to look at him so fast Ralph worries she may have gotten whiplash.

"_What?!"_ she screeches, "I-I don't _like_ her!"

"Yeah, you do." His face softens, "It's ok. To like her, I mean."

"Alright so maybe I like her a little." She grumbles, with her arms crossed and her face still pink.

"A little?"

"OK! I like her a lot!" she snaps and throws her hands up in the air. "Happy now?" she glares at him.

Ralph bends over and picks her up, placing her on his shoulder. "Come on," he says, "I told Felix we'd meet him and Calhoun at Tapper's."

When they arrive Felix and Calhoun are already sitting at Ralph's usual table at the back of Tapper's.

"Hey guys." Vanellope says as she jumps off Ralph's shoulder and onto one of the stools.

"Sorry we took so long." Ralph says, he takes a seat on the stool next to Vanellope.

"Why did you take so long?" Felix looks concerned, "Did something happen?"

"We just ran into Vanellope's girlfriend. That's all." Ralph grins. Felix and Calhoun have matching looks of surprise as they look at Vanellope.

"Ralph! Candle's _not _my girlfriend!" she snaps, her face ablaze.

"Candle? You already have a pet name for her?" He teases; he doesn't think it's possible for her face to get any redder.

"Shut up!"

"Wait," Felix cuts in. "You like one of the other racers?" He looks at Vanellope curiously.

"W-well…" She stammers and Ralph gives her a look. "Yeah."

Felix leans over the table excitedly. "Does she give you the honey glows?" Calhoun rolls her eyes at this.

"I guess?"

"You _guess_?!" He exclaims incredulously. "Then how do you feel about her?"

"When I look at her…" she starts and turns her gaze to the table top. A small smile graces her face. "I feel like I'm gonna vurp."

Ralph chokes on a laugh while Felix and Calhoun look at her in confusion. "What's a 'vurp'?" Felix asks.

"It's vomit and a burp mixed together." Calhoun and Ralph burst out laughing while Felix looks disgusted.

"Isn't that a bad thing?"

She shrugs, "She mostly makes me feel like I'm in first place and about to cross the finish line. I get all nervous and excited and there's this _rush _an-"

"Ok, we get it Candy Kid. You got it bad." Calhoun interrupts with a smirk. "So, what are you going to do about it?"

"Uhhhh…nothing?"

"What!?" Felix shrieks, gaining the whole bar's attention. "But you can't just do _nothing_! You should complement her."

"Or, you should impress her." Calhoun says. "Do something dangerous."

"That's an awful idea." Ralph cuts in, "She's trying to get a girl to like her, not wind up in the hospital."

"Wait a sec-" Vanellope starts when a couple of the other customers start cutting in with suggestions.

"Act cool, girls like a bit of mystery." One of them says.

"Could you list-" she tries again.

"No no, pick-up lines are the way to go." Another one suggests.

"Hey! I'm trying to-"

"Get her a gift!"

"Show off your strength!"

"Kiss her on the hand!"

All the voices start blurring together. Ideas upon ideas on what she should do. Eventually Vanellope snaps and yells out "ENOUGH!"

The entire bar goes silent and everyone slowly turns in her direction. She takes a deep breath to calm herself down. She climbs up onto Ralph's shoulder with her hands on her hips as she rakes her eyes over everyone in the bar. "I'm going to do this my way. Ok?"

And with that she jumps back onto her stool and no one brings it up again for the rest of the night.


	2. Chapter 2

A/N: Sorry it took so long.

So basically I'm pretty sure I'm the only one who ships Vanilla Flame (Shut up, it's

my ship name for them!). But whatever I think it's adorable and I kinda think it's

cool that I wrote the first fanfic for it (as far as I've seen). Here's chapter 2.

* * *

Regardless of what Vanellope said the other night, she had begrudgingly written all the suggestions down that she could remember with the hope that one of them would work. Surely the other characters knew what they were talking about…right? None the less she'd decide she would try at least one suggestion per day until she'd "won the dynamite gal's heart" as Felix would put it.

After the arcade had closed for the evening she would put her plan into action.

As soon as the last race had finished Vanellope pulled the list at from her sweater's pocket, where it had been for safe keeping. The first thing on the list was: "Act cool."

Alright she could do that, easy peasy. Now all she had to do was find Candlehead. She took off in her kart towards the Candy Cane forest.

Vanellope eventually found her atop a small hill on the terrain near the forest. She drove her kart up and hopped out, casually leaning against the back of it.

"'Sup Candlehead?" She said trying to sound indifferent.

"Umm nothing much just working on my kart." Candlehead gestures to her kart with the wrench she had in her hand. "Are you okay?"

Vanellope shrugs, "I'm fi-" she's cut off by the fact her kart has suddenly disappeared from behind her and she falls back into the chocolate puddle her kart had previously been on top of. She hastily gets up, face flushed with embarrassment, and turns to see her kart rolling down the hill (apparently she had forgotten to put it in park). "S-see ya!" she shouts over her shoulder as she runs after her kart covered in chocolate leaving the other racer behind in a stunned silence.

Later that night Vanellope angrily crosses off "Act cool" from the list.

* * *

The next evening Vanellope pulled out her list. Number two was: "Use pick-up lines."

Well at least it would get her point across. She had prepared some the night before and hopefully one of them would work.

She walks over to where Candlehead is still parked by the finish line. Candlehead looks up and spots her, a smile lighting up her face.

"Hey Vanellope." She says and Vanellope takes a deep breath.

"Girl you're like a candy bar half nuts and half sweet."

"What?" Candlehead looks startled for a second. Where had _that_ come from?

"You make me melt like hot fudge on a sundae." She tries again.

Candlehead's face flushes and her candle flickers as she stammers. "Umm tha-thanks."

Vanellope cheers internally. _She's blushing! That means it's working! _She thinks. She's about to use another one when a voice interrupts her.

"Candlehead come on! We said we'd meet up with the others!" Vanellope has never hated Taffyta more.

"Sorry Pres. I have to go." Candlehead quickly drives off before Vanellope can reply.

"Darn it!" She kicks the ground as she crosses her arms and scowls.

That night the second suggestion is crossed off.

* * *

She has to prepare a bit more for the third attempt and she even enlists the help of the other Sugar Rush racers. After the final race of the day they all make their way down to Diet Cola Mountain.

"So why did you want help endangering your life Princess Vanellope?" Sour Bill asked dryly from beside her as they made their way inside the mountain.

"Number one: it's President Vanellope and number two: what's the point of risking my neck if no ones there to watch?" She grins.

"Suit yourself." He sighs.

Everything is in place by the time Candlehead arrives. Vanellope's kart is near the diet cola lava, there's hand made slingshots and there's even a makeshift barricade made of a hard transparent candy. Vanellope hops into her kart and the other racers get into position behind the barricade. Taffyta grabs Candlehead by the wrist and walks her to the barricade.

"Come on," she says, "We have to get our slingshots ready!"

"What's going on? Sour Bill just told me to come here he didn't say why." Candlehead asks, looking around at the abandoned level.

Taffyta looks at her incredulously. "You _really_ don't know?" she says. "Vanellope's gonna-"

"Is everyone ready?" Vanellope's voice cuts her off. There's a chorus of affirmatives. "Alright, remember to shoot at the mentos when Sour Bill tells you to." She slides her goggles on and revs the engine.

Sour Bill holds up a flag from beside the barricade. "On your mark, get set, go." He says as he drops it and goes behind the barricade.

Vanellope takes off, doing laps around the diet cola lava, building up her speed. Suddenly she turns taking the same route she did the first time she showed Ralph. As she makes it to the pink wafer bridge, Sour Bill monotonously yells "Now" and the racers shoot their rocks at the mentos before ducking under the barricade as fast as they can. By the time Vanellope starts her jump the diet cola reaction is already surrounding her. She glitches short distances between the spurts of lava and the racers watch with baited breaths as she makes it to the other side and just barely avoids getting hit with a huge glop of the diet cola reaction. It's not over yet as she continues driving precariously avoiding the broiling hot liquid. Finally the vicious shower stops and Vanellope drifts to a stop.

The racers run from out of the barricade towards her, cheering all the way. She looks around trying to spot Candlehead but is out of luck as the other racers crowd her. They all pat her on the back and say how awesome she was, but the one person whose opinion Vanellope wants isn't there. It's not until the other racers leave that Candlehead comes up to her.

"That was pretty cool huh?" Vanellope hints with a triumphant grin.

"Yeah," Candlehead frowns slightly. "And _really_ dangerous."

Vanellope's face falls. "Well yeah, that's why it was cool."

For a second Candlehead looks sad, Vanellope swears the candle on her head dims, before she quickly smiles and says, "I guess you're right it was pretty cool. See ya later Pres." She walks off without skipping like she usually does. As she watches her go Vanellope can't help but feel like the whole thing back fired.

That evening as Vanellope crosses off "Impress her (do something dangerous)" she writes "never again" under the word "dangerous."

* * *

The next night Vanellope feels a bit better as she looks at the list and sees "Compliment her" as the next one. Maybe if she plays her cards right she'll be able to make up for yesterday. She takes a deep breath as she walks over to Candlehead who's still in her kart from the final race.

"Hi." She says shyly with her hands clasped behind her back.

"Hi Vanellope, what's up?" Candlehead grins.

"I just wanted to say," She shifts her eyes nervously, "I r-really l-like your pigtails."

"Really?" Candlehead fingers her pigtails with a smile.

"Yeah, and I also like your candle I think it looks cool." Vanellope says with confidence and Candlehead blushes slightly.

"Well I like your eyes they're really pretty." Vanellope's face burns bright red and she gets nervous as her heart beats faster. _I'm supposed to compliment her! Not the other way around! _She thinks. _What do I do?! _"I-I-I gotta go. B-bye!" she says as she panics and runs off. Once again Candle head is left alone stunned as to what happened.

When Vanellope crosses off the number four, her face is still red.

* * *

Days go by as she continues to go down the list each time one failure after another until she gets to the one suggestion: "Show off your strength." She's not entirely sure how to do that. After all the people of Sugar Rush were not made for strength.

She has no idea how to that until she sees Candlehead parked in front of a fallen candy cane tree branch. It's blocking the dirt road and there's no way around it without driving into a taffy swamp.

"Hi Pres." Candlehead notices her. "This branch fell when I was driving. It almost hit me."

"I'll get it." Vanellope makes a show of rolling up her sleeves. She bends down to grab it, immediately put under the strain of its weight. She grunts as she slowly carries it off the track.

"Need some help?"

"No I'm fine." Vanellope wheezes as she walks by the edge of one of the taffy swamps. The branch is almost completely off the road. She only has to take a few more steps when the ground beneath her crumples and she slides into the taffy swamp. Candlehead runs to the edge trying desperately to see her through the thick green liquid.

Vanellope manages to glitch out of it only to land in a field of lollipops. As she gets up the small candies cover her. She hears a giggle and turns to see Candlehead laughing at her. Though it's impossible to see Vanellope's face is red with embarrassment.

"You look like Ralph did." Candlehead giggles she can barely stand she's laughing so hard.

"I have to go get cleaned off." Vanellope says just wanting to crawl in a hole and die. She walks off, more candy sticking to her as she goes.

Once Vanellope is finally cleaned off she takes the list out and rips it to shreds, too upset to try anymore.

* * *

The next evening Vanellope doesn't even bother to try. She goes straight back to the castle after the final race. She walks by Sour Bill and goes straight to her room to sulk only to be surprised when she sees Ralph there.

"Hey kid," he says "I haven't seen you around in awhile so I went to check on you."

"Hey Ralph." She sighs with her head down as she walks over and sits on her bed.

"What's wrong?" he asks.

Vanellope looks up at him with tears in her eyes and pats the spot beside her on the bed. She tells him the whole story from the list being made to the night before. When she finishes she's crying slightly and quickly trying to wipe her eyes.

"Nothing worked! I tried everything!" She snaps.

"Why don't you just ask her out the way you want to?"

"What?" She looks at him confusedly.

"Well, you've just been doing what other people want you to do. But have you done it your way?"

"No." she grins up at him with renewed determination, "Ralph I'm going to need your help with something."


End file.
